Vice President Harris in Paris and the connection with Guyana

Nov 30, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – One night, moons ago, as editor-in-chief of the Kaieteur News, Adam Harris and I were discussing my column for the next day in the office. I can’t remember who or what I was criticising but Adam said to me that I am going to be a lonely man in this world without friends.
I remember telling Adam that I will choose that pathway rather than staying silent over the unacceptable things people do in this country. Moons ago, a UG lecturer, O’Neil Greaves, said something to me while I was still a lecturer at UG. I always remember his words. He told me that one day when I look over my shoulder, my army will not be there.
It so happened I repeated that Greaves’ observation to Bryan McIntosh at his gate last week. The O’Neil Greaves’ words to Bryan will form the basis of a separate article shortly. Adam and O’Neil were right. But I will continue to do what I feel is inside my veins. Yes, I have regrets. Yes I know Guyana is a lost horizon, perhaps irretrievably so, and that this country can allow an analyst to do three columns a day.
What I am writing here I have commented on several times before there was the March 2020 election rigging. What I am about to comment on here, I did long ago in my columnist career. After the March 2020 election I have revisited that theme several times. It is this – there has to exist a moral failure in some Guyanese that they could be silent over one of the worst tragedies in both British Guiana and independent Guyana – the March 2020 election rigging – yet find their voice on other issues that cannot even remotely be compared to March 2020.
Do Guyanese know that when the rigging was going down, cultural icon Ian McDonald composed some words of disapproval? Mr. Mc Donald does not get involved in political commentary at all. But the decency in the man compelled him to show his disgust.
We come to Vice President Harris. She was in France recently and bought US$500 in cooking material. On arrival back in the US, Republican politicians and right-wing commentators attacked her for the amount she spent. The controversy had a sudden death because Harris backers accused her detractors of absolute hypocrisy. They showed where Trump spent indecent sums on unnecessary things.
This moral lesson is easily found in Guyana and I will not put my pen down on highlighting it. Where the Guyana Human Rights Association, Transparency International- Guyana Chapter, the women rights groups, the LGBTQ community, In The Diaspora column, and certain intellectuals were, who at the moment are carping on EXXON but were silent when the rigging was taking place? We saw the sudden birth of a group named Election Reform Group (ERG). Who or what is this organism? Where were its leaders during five months of volcanic eruption at GECOM?
Is it possible, like me, that they didn’t have a smart phone to see the actual events? But I saw those events from my daughter’s smart phone right in my home. These anomalies took place for five consecutive months. Then we have to add the no-confidence vote where the Caribbean Court of Justice was asked to agree that 34 is the majority of 65.
One person went to an influential international organisation to request its intervention in stopping oil extraction by EXXON in Guyana. The critic lives in a developed country. The person was described in the media as a human rights activist.
How can any person accept the label of human rights activist and not expand on the illegalities that almost destroyed this nation for five consecutive months? Now I read in the newspaper about a gentleman named Dr. Rory Fraser and his critical position on the government’s proposed amendments to the Representation of the People Act. He is listed in the newspaper as an implementing member of the ERG.
I honestly don’t know what is meant by an “implementing member” of an organisation. Another “implementing member” of the ERG is Mr. Lawrence Latchmansingh. He was featured with his photograph and his admonishing views of the amendments. The lead “implementing member” of the ERG is Dr. Desmond Thomas.
My question to the implementing members of the ERG is logical and important to the expanding discussion on the role of moral responsibility in society. I asked Dr. Thomas before and I am asking the implementing members of the ERG now – just 18 months ago, Guyana almost returned to Burnhamite permanency of state power. Where were they and how do they feel about the disaster?
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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